Duke is a serious Final Four contender
We just may have kept the Duke Foot Injury from ending our season for the third straight year
Miami is really backing into the tournament phase
So much for those little Tools and their VAUNTED twelve-guard lineup, at least until next Saturday
Still not going to miss Maryland, College Park at all
Just enjoying the ride
I have some gripe or other but will hold it for now

TWO DUKIES PICK THE ACCVolume XV, Episode 13GARNET AND OLD EDITIONFebruary 23, 2012

#5 DUKE (23-4, 10-2) @ #15 FLORIDA STATE (19-7, 10-2)

Matt's comments in blue. Kerwin Ditchen's comments in white.

THE HUMAN CORCH DEPARTMENT: To the surprise of no one, the ACC did absolutely nothing to that little tyrant Hess, and allowed him effectively to step on NCSU's spirit and its character by throwing out two of its legends. Beautiful response, ACC. I don't blame Yow for not following up - - what could she do? She knows that Swofford exists only to grease the skids for NCCH and to feed his fat face with dollar bills. However, I have no doubt that he made an enemy of her, and I'm glad. The more people who want this utter clown to retire as soon as possible, the better. And meanwhile, to anyone who really thinks that Gugliotta and Corchiani were using profanity in front of their young daughters - - they weren't. Donít you think, in this day and age, that some sort of report, from some yo-yo's Twitfeed, for example, would have surfaced indicating that they were? Just disgraceful handling by the ACC, which, of course, is par for the course. Nicely done.

BORING OPINIONS DEPARTMENT: It was very in vogue among Internet wags to say that Duke's game against Boston College on Sunday was "boring." Actually, it's you who are boring, Internet wags. And call me crazy, but when Duke goes to Boston College, I like my game boring, provided that you find a completely dominant performance by Duke to be yawn-inducing. Some of us actually watched the game, were impressed by the defensive adjustments, noted how Duke made BeeCee's offense look much worse than it actually is (only MDCP and the Tools, both playing at home in the games in question, scored more points against the Beagles this season in ACC play), and noted how, after a shaky start, Duke just blew the doors off with a nice outside game. We even weathered a crap game from Mason Plumlee. So, yeah, I liked that one.

GBINIJE A LONG TIME DEPARTMENT: I love these Internet people who claim that Gbinije can't be that good, or he'd be seeing the court, like Krzyzewski has never been wrong about a player's talent level before. Well, in six minutes against Boston College, Gbinije had an enormous off-balance rebound in traffic, a beautiful flush of a nifty feed from . . . Zafirovski?? Yes, the Macedonian Missile! (Huh?) Mike also played suffocating defense on two different Boston College players and generally comported himself as though he could certainly be off assistance to this team. My credentials for making this assessment are 27 years of watching college basketball, and never taking my eyes off of Gbinije once I realized he was on the court. He can play. So play him.

WE NOW PRESENT WHO ARE THESE CLOWNS:

Bernard James, 6-10 SR - - James, 52, has been a Jedi in the Old Republic, a three-star general in the USAF, a designated senior heckler at rallies for Bob Dole (no, no - - his first Senate campaign), and a guy that the Plumlees just! Absolutely! Cannot! Handle! James' game log is a revelation - - he usually plays about 27 minutes a game, but against us, he logged 32, and during a key second-half stretch, he just shoved the Plumlees all over the court and helped Florida State to come back from their deficit. Just a crazy idea - - how about stopping this guy? He's got a nice story, but I'm tired of seeing our big guys be weak.

Xavier Gibson, 6-11 SR - - FSU has played seven games, all in the ACC, since they defeated Duke at Cameron. In the contest in Durham, Gibson had 16 points and went to the line eight times. Since then, he's scored in double figures just twice out of seven opportunities, and both of those were for exactly 10 points. He also got eight attempts from the stripe against Duke, making seven. In the seven ACC games since, he's gone 7-13 from the freebie line, so in seven more games, he's had five more attempts than he had against us, and has made the same number of free throws. I say again: is there anyone in our frontcourt with the needed toughness to body these guys??

Deividas Dulkys, 6-5 SR - - Duke struggled with Florida State back in January because all three of its starting guards are 6-5. However, since that time, Austin Rivers' defense has improved dramatically, and I have a feeling that Dulkys will be the one feeling the heat, at least at times. Actually, I'd probably leave Kelly or Dawkins on this guy, who isn't very capricious or difficult to guard, unless you're NCCH, and have Rivers on Snaer.

Luke Loucks, 6-5 SR - - Hasn't scored in double figs since December 30 against Princeton, and owns a lousy .393/.571/.306 shooting line. So Curry/Thornton/Cook should play a step off of him. His defense is also a weak point on a generally sterling defensive team, so Curry and Rivers (on switches) should drive right at him. Building up Luke's fouls wouldn't hurt, either - - the Noids have no one else who can reliably handle the ball. And finally, this team coughs it up a lot, so . . . howzabout that press? Curry, Rivers, ThorntonCook, and even Gbinije )stop me if I sound crazy) can assist with this. It's a great way to mess with teams that depend heavily on predetermined halfcourt sets, as does F$U.

Michael Snaer, 6-5 JR - - Rivers should probably guard him very tightly. He's not THAT great of a shooter from the floor - - his clutch heroics x2 (while undeniably impressive) have made his rep a little stronger than it should be. He's at 42.2% overall and 37.8% from threeland. Defense is overrated except for the steals (which are significant), and he doesn't drive very often. By the way, Dulkys never drives and Loucks let his license lapse as well. So the overplay - - as often seems to be the case, no? - - isn't really the answer here.

BENCH? Yeah. Four other guys get significant minutes.

Ian Miller, 6-3 SO - - the Charlotte product has vaulted his way into the second-leading scorer spot for the Nulls, and has hit double figures in scoring in the Partianoles' last four games, including 17 against ridiculous NSCU. He's sort of a driver, and is certainly no distance shaman. He'll come in to replace one of the big guys and give a four-guard look, and to give the starting guards a rest, because Listless Len believes in that very strongly. He can be played off a step and should not be permitted to carry out his designed role - - giving the crowd and the team a lift off the bench. Just don't let it happen.

Okaro White, 6-7 SO - - a very inconsistent player who reminds me of a higher-scoring version of DeQuan Jones from Miami Florida. His job is to come in for James and sometimes Gibson, and deal out hard fouls while mostly driving the rim on offense - - he's only made eight three all season (so mark him down for at least one in this game, right?). Presents the usual matchup problem for Duke and should be countered with Kelly. Hey, maybe Kelly will have a good all-around game in this one, for the first time since forever, eh?

Jon Kreft, 7-0 SR - - this is where you wish the Plumlees would force Len's hand by being hyperagressive against James and Gibson, getting the latter in foul trouble, and forcing FSU to counter with this stiff. He's taken more than four FGAs just once all season and isn't really that much of a boarding threat either because of sloth-toed footwork and resulting poor position.

Jeff Peterson, 6-0 SR - - now on his third Division I program after stops at Iowa and Arkansas, he's basically a relief point guard, and he does usually hit a couple of midrange jumpers here and there, but he's not a big threat and will struggle against any Duke defender. Well, he shouldn't be a big threat and he should struggle against any Duke defender.

BOTTOM LINE THIS FOR ME, PLEASE:

There's an interesting psychological twist to this game - - typically, FSU is the disrespected aggressor and the underdog against the traditional ACC elite, but this time, if they win, they go a looooooooooong way toward locking up the #1 seed in the ACC-T and the regular season championship. So I think the pressure's on them - - they beat us and dumped the Tools like a month-old load of laundry, so they have to play up to expectations. Meanwhile, Duke sort of comes into this one a bit more casually than normal, I think - - the perception is that the Blue Devils are down, and most people expect them to drop this one. Since this is the reverse of the usual situation, I think Duke can turn this to its advantage - - a rare opportunity.

Another point is that for all of the Quasinoids' vaunted defensive prowess, we scored against them just fine in Cameron. We just couldn't stop a team of nonagenarians, let alone ACC-caliber players who, other than James, are all within reasonable hailing distance of their twenties. Only Clemson, in FSU's first game of the season, scored more against them (79 points) than we did (76 points), and at times in that game, we were cruising. The Nulls' last four games before playing Everbody's Favorite Doormat a/k/a North Carolina State are instructive, too. They scored 58 at home against Virginia and won by three. They LOST to Boston College in Chestnut Hill, 64-60. They beat Miami by five at home, 64-59. And they defeated VPI at home by the ridiculous score of 48-47 only because Jarrell Eddie got hurt and couldn't shoot his free throws, Hamilton wisely mandated his replacement at the line with some stiff (*great* rule, BTW - - one of college basketball's best), and Snaer Drum hit another one at the horn.

So letís not pretend these guys aren't beatable. I am calling a loss for official purposes but see no reason why Duke can't win. GO DUKE!!!!!

One more thing: another good attribute of this team is that there are guys that will be silent the whole game, but make big buckets or other contributions at key moments. Examples: thornton vs Kansas, Miles vs UM. Tonight's example would be Curry, who finished strong.

Posted by: tom

Date: 2/24/2012 5:45:14 AM

Teddy V, you give Hess a run for the money Kemo Sabe. Geez. I agree with Matt, the pressure was more on FSU than Duke. Miles showed up, Mason just looked like he wasn't there in this game. Thats a couple in a row for him. Those early two fouls (well, three) which all of them I thought were questionable, took him out of it. And of course, a missed dunk. The step on Rivers' foot not called, the charge not called, the foul on Thornton when the ball went out of bounds, and especially that out of bounds no call which I actually thought Austin broke his foot. I was irate to say the least, after that play. I just knew these no calls and even more aggressive play by FSU would get somebody hurt. And screw you FSU fans that booed when he got up. You freakin Maryland or something? Dawkins had a great game after a long drought but I knew he wasn't going to shoot like that again in the second half but other guys kept it going. And I was surprised after what the FSU bigs did in the Duke game at Cameron that they didn't try to take it inside more often. But the defense is better compared to when the played before. Dulkey's had only three points on 1 for 6 shots. Gibson was held to 6 and James had 13 but it seemed to be a quiet 13. I really believed that it was just a matter of time that they would inch back but everytime FSU got within a basket or two somebody would make a three. Kelly then Curry and then Miles with the under the basket layup which he totally butchered early in the game. I think I'm more relieved than anything and I'm proud how aggressive the team played despite the foul trouble and home court. Also wanted to add that ESPN seemed to be trying hard to talk about how many number ones come in play at FSU by bringing up the football team. That is very lame. FSU cheerleaders looked great. Good night guys. Thanks.

Posted by: Serious G

Date: 2/24/2012 5:36:35 AM

Fats - that was Chest Rockwell on the FSU bench drawing up "plays"

Posted by: Serious G

Date: 2/24/2012 5:35:34 AM

Really good preview and I think tonight's result hammered home Matt's point that yes, we can score on these guys.

Great night for my man Andre Dawkins! Shooting aside, his overall game was pretty good.

That Rivers kid is pretty tough.

Miles, great game. Several big boards. Unexpected offense. R Kelly was key as well: key boards + big shots. We gave up a lot of baords and in-close buckets, but I felt our big men hung in there pretty well. At least 2 of the 1st half calls on Mason were just awful.

One more thing: our oft-maligned defence was ok tonight, but it is worth mentioning that the perimeter D was flat-out awesome relative to what we have seen earlier this year. Keep it up!

Great posts on here!

Posted by: Mark Buckner

Date: 2/24/2012 5:20:42 AM

It's a lot more difficult to win games when our preferred methods aren't at their peak.

Well done, indeed.

Posted by: CDG

Date: 2/24/2012 5:16:44 AM

Great win, boys. Not pretty, but well deserved, and there haven't been a huge number of those this year.

Apparently push-offs to grab offensive rebounds okay for FSU. Not okay if named Plumlee.

Posted by: Matt

Date: 2/24/2012 3:40:09 AM

Ah, Mason. Just utterly clueless.

Posted by: Fats "Lazer" Durston

Date: 2/24/2012 3:33:11 AM

I see that WWF takedowns are not called against FSU. Make up for Curry's travel?

Posted by: Matt

Date: 2/24/2012 3:29:18 AM

Dawkins hits another three, this one from the left corner - - Listless Len calls timeout.

Posted by: SanFranSoxFan

Date: 2/24/2012 2:15:42 AM

DVR watching with son after his baseball practice - I guess no live-blogging till empty nester hood.

Funny thing about this team. The constant from year to year is the great coaching (in comparison to all others at least), but you still never know what you'll get. Curry/Rivers/Dawkins seem to be on same wavelength, and preseason I believed Rivers would never connect with anyone. The bigs are mostly trying to channel Zoobeard (ok by me) 'cept Mason, who'll come around. I cringe when Thornton and/or Hairston are on the floor - literally cringe.

This is a good team getting better. In late February (not historically their best time). Weird. Maybe it's because 7++ guys are spreading the minutes?

Good game tonight, played by gamers. Weird. I just don't know.

Posted by: Dave

Date: 2/23/2012 11:50:05 PM

Caught the game on delay...

Thought Rivers might have broken his leg, the way he was grabbing it, and after seeing how it got rolled on. Verrrrrry glad he didn't.

Just terrible officiating(by which I mean to say, just another day in the ACC). Mason picked up one foul for, apparently, putting his hip into a guy while posting up. Um, ok.

Glad we got the win but happier we didn't punk out, and that we kept our composure. Progress!